A ca. 2.60 Ga tectono-thermal event in Western Shandong Province, North China Craton from zircon U–Pb–O isotopic evidence: Plume or convergent plate boundary process

•Nine samples over the ancient rock belt record a regional tectono-thermal event at ∼2.6Ga.•2.6Ga can be regarded as the early and late Neoarchean break in the region.•Most of zircons, whether magmatic or metamorphic, have δ18O values of +4.5‰ to +6.5‰.•However, a tonalite sample has metamorphic zircons with low δ18O values (+1.09‰ to +3.25‰).•This suggests that meteoric water must be involved in the metamorphic and anatectic process.